Hungary

  • Marcell Jankovics – Fehérlófia AKA Son of the White Mare (1981)

    Marcell Jankovics1981-1990AnimationHungary

    Quote:
    The history of Hungarian animation begins in 1914 and carries through to the modern day. Starting with short promotional cartoons prior to the two World Wars, Hungarian animation underwent a sporadic and halting development during the turbulent war years which were characterized in large part by the emigration of much of the field’s top talent. This exodus slowed dramatically during the 1950s when the Hungarian Communist Party took power and the Iron Curtain took shape.Read More »

  • Béla Tarr – Kárhozat AKA Damnation [5:3] (1988) (HD)

    Béla Tarr1981-1990ArthouseDramaHungary

    Quote:
    Damnation tells the story of Karrer (Miklós B. Székely), a depressed man in love with a married torch singer (Vali Kerekes) from a local bar, the Titanik. The singer breaks off their affair, because she dreams of becoming famous. Karrer is offered smuggling work by Willarsky (Gyula Pauer), a local bartender. Karrer offers the job to the singer’s husband, Sebestyén (György Cserhalmi). This gets him out of the way, but things don’t go as Karrer plans. Betrayals follow. Karrer despairs.Read More »

  • Pater Sparrow – 1 (2009)

    2001-2010HungaryPater SparrowSci-Fi

    A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and completely filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn’t appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to the whole of humanity in the space of a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research (RDI Reality Defense Institute). As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book increasingly well known, raising numerous controversies (political, scientific, religious and artistic). Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.

    Based on Stanislaw Lem’s experimental novel One Human Minute.Read More »

  • István Szabó – Mephisto[4K Restoration] (1981)

    István Szabó1981-1990DramaHungary

    A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.Read More »

  • Ildikó Enyedi – Tamás és Juli (1997)

    Ildikó Enyedi1991-2000DramaHungary

    Quiet and reserved kindergarten teacher Juli (Marta Angyal) and awkward coal miner Tamas (David Janosi) meet during the summer in a small coal-mining town. This French-Hungarian film, part of the Vu Par series, details the problems of their romance, leading to the fateful events experienced by the young couple on the evening of December 31,1999.Read More »

  • Marcell Jankovics – Ének a csodaszarvasról AKA Song of the Miraculous Hind (2002)

    2001-2010AnimationFantasyHungaryMarcell Jankovics

    Divided into four sections, “Song” is inspired by the Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends about Creation, in which the world begins with characters who are only half-human, one being half-bird, the other half-bear.Read More »

  • András Kovács – Hideg napok AKA Cold days (1966)

    1961-1970András KovácsDramaHungary

    Set in 1946, this movie deals with the planning and execution of the January, 1942 Novi Sad massacre of 4,000 Yugoslavian Serbs and Jews by Hungarian army units. It was undertaken as a reprisal for a partisan ambush (in which 17 soldiers were gunned down). And it is mainly explored through the reminiscences of four participants–Major Buky, Lieutenant Tarpataki, Ensign Pozdor, and Corporal Szabonow–cell-mates awaiting trial. Ultimately, however, what you get is an extended debate over issues of individual responsibility.Read More »

  • Márta Mészáros – Örökbefogadás AKA Adoption (1975) (HD)

    Márta Mészáros1971-1980DramaHungary

    Quote:
    Single factory worker Kata, 43, wants to have a child with her long-time secret lover, a married man called Joska. He doesn’t like the idea. Kata befriends teenage schoolgirl Anna, abandoned by her parents at the age of six. Anna runs away from the local children’s home and moves in with Kata so that she can keep on seeing her boyfriend Sanyi. Kata goes to see Anna’s parents and persuades them to give the young lovers their permission to marry. Through Anna, Kata becomes interested in neglected children and decides to adopt a baby from the children’s home.Read More »

  • Márta Mészáros – Holdudvar (1969)

    Márta Mészáros1961-1970DramaHungaryPolitics

    Holdudvar (1969)

    A woman attends the funeral of her husband after he dies in an airplane crash. She returns home and begins to have feelings of ambivalent emptiness and decides she never really loved him. She contemplates refusing a government insurance policy taken out on her late spouse, a respected scientist. Her son returns home with the girlfriend that prompted his earlier estrangement from the family. The bereaved widow accepts the son and his girlfriend in a conciliatory gesture. When the son discovers his mother may turn down the money, he drugs her and she is imprisoned in a country house. The mother and the girl soon realize the boy may be just like his opportunistic and uncaring father, as both women view the son in a different light. Both women come to the realization that there is life beyond what a man may dictate in this inspiring film of female liberation.Read More »

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